It is known to provide manually operable feed control devices for advancing and retracting a drain cleaning cable or “snake” relative to a drain being cleaned. In some such devices, a plurality of rollers are supported in a housing, or the like, through which the snake extends, and the rollers are spaced apart around the periphery of the snake. The rollers have neutral and engaged positions relative to the snake. The positions of the rollers are such that when the snake rotates, the snake is axially displaced relative to the rollers and the device. In some designs, the rollers are skewed relative to the axis of the snake so as to axially displace the snake in one direction relative to the housing in response to rotation of the snake in one direction. Axial displacement of the snake in the opposite direction is achieved by reversing the direction of rotation of the snake. Examples of an arrangement of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,401 to Rutkowski, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,588 to Rutkowski, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,076 to Rutkowski, et al. In other designs, axial displacement of the snake in opposite directions relative to the housing is achieved by rotating the snake in just one direction and reversing the skew of the rollers relative thereto. Such an arrangement is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,276 to Babb, et al.
More recent feeding devices of the latter type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,397 to Babb in which the skew of the rollers is reversible by relative rotational displacement of housing members in which the rollers are supported, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,228 to Margherio, et al. wherein two pairs of rollers are axially spaced apart in a housing and a third roller is mounted axially therebetween and is shiftable to selectively engage the snake against one or the other of the roller sets.
The power source by which a drain cleaning snake is rotated can be a handheld, crank operated drain cleaner such as shown for example in the noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,076 to Rutkowski, et al.; a trigger actuated motor driven drain cleaner such as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,024 to Hunt and U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,356 to Silverman, et al.; or somewhat larger, ground-supported drain cleaners such as are shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,306 to Irwin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,263 to Babb, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,724 to Salecker, et al.
The control devices which do not require reversal of the direction of rotation of the snake in order to achieve displacement thereof in axially opposite directions are advantageous for a number of reasons. In this respect, for example, operation of the drain cleaning apparatus is made easier for the user by not having to manipulate a reversing switch for the drive motor. At the same time, however, currently known arrangements for axially displacing a snake in opposite directions without changing the direction of rotation of the snake are structurally complex and at least somewhat cumbersome to operate in requiring the user to manipulate at least one and sometimes two components to achieve reversal of the direction of the snake drive.
In addition, feed control devices used on many drain cleaners typically utilize a lever that is moved in directions to engage the snake, which some users may consider as being not intuitive. That is, in order to extend or advance the snake, the lever is moved in one direction which is different than the direction of cable extension; and in order to retract the snake, the lever is moved in another direction which is different than the direction of cable retraction. And, in many instances the lever must be manually returned to a neutral position after desired cable extension or retraction.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a feed control assembly for a drain cleaning device that used an intuitive lever mechanism such that in order to extend the snake, the lever is moved in the same direction as snake extension; and in order to retract the snake, the lever is moved in the same direction as snake retraction. In addition, it would be desirable to provide such a feed control assembly in which the lever is biased toward a neutral position.